With 189 member countries, staff from more than 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

Experts And Leaders

The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. We provide a wide array of financial products and technical assistance, and we help countries share and apply innovative knowledge and solutions to the challenges they face.

Country Groups

Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development

We face big challenges to help the world’s poorest people and ensure that everyone sees benefits from economic growth. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress.

Data

We engage the development community with real-world statistics

Thanks to strong national leadership and ambitious reforms, most parts of the world have seen an expansion in access to health services and action to ensure affordability. However, despite this, half the world's population still cannot access needed health services and 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of health expenses, according to recent research from the World Bank Group and World Health Organization (WHO). Read More.

The total external debt of low- and middle-income countries rose 10 percent in 2017 to $7.1 trillion, a faster pace of debt accumulation than the 4 percent increase in 2016, according to the International Debt Statistics 2019. Regional level trends in external debt in 2017 accumulation varied. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa accumulated external debt at a faster pace than low- and middle-income countries in other regions in 2017: the combined external debt stock rose 15.5 percent from the previous year to $535 billion.

Much of this increase was driven by a sharp rise in borrowing by two of the region's largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, where the external debt stock rose 29 percent and 21 percent respectively. Read More.